Which is the Best MongoDB GUI?

A good UI is an important part of the development experience. The MongoDB Shell works great for administrative actions, but when working with larger amounts of data, the UI becomes fairly important.

In 2014, we discussed 4 of the top MongoDB GUIs: MongoVue, MongoHub, RockMongo, and Robomongo. We left those at the end of this post for your review. Since then, however, many new options have emerged and we thought we’d share our updates.

Comparing MongoDB GUIs

In this article, we are going to compare 4 of the top MongoDB User Interfaces that help developers increase their productivity and manage their database. We’ll be focusing on data visualisation, presentation, and editing. As always, your mileage will vary depending on your scenario and preferences. Read on to find out which is the best MongoDB GUI for you, updated for 2016.

1. MongoDB Compass

MongoDB Compass is a tool that helps you visually analyse and understand your MongoDB data

Mongo DB : Compass UI

MongoDB Compass: New Connection Form

It provides users with a graphical view of their MongoDB schema without requiring the use of query language. In MongoDB, collections do not enforce a rigidly-defined document structure. This can make it difficult to explore and understand the underlying data and its structure without a tool like MongoDB Compass.

MongoDB Compass analyses your documents and displays rich structures within your collections in a simple and intuitive GUI. It allows you to quickly visualize and explore your schema to understand the frequency, types, and ranges of fields in your data set.

MongoDB Compass: Document Viewer

Here are some features provided by MongoDB Compass:

Visually explore your data

Run ad hoc queries in seconds

View your query performance

Compass empowers you to make smarter decisions about indexing, document validation, and more

No command line needed

Note: While the UI looks slick, it is neither a full-featured development UI or a full-featured BI tool to mine your data. Will be interesting to see in which direction it will proceed.

Platforms: Mac OS X, Windows

Pricing: Free for development purposes; contact MongoDB for Commercial/Advanced Licenses

2. Robomongo

Robomongo is a pioneer of some interesting GUI ideas and techniques that were implemented for the first time in MongoDB ecosystem

Robomongo: Cross Platform Availability

Robomongo: Cross Platform Availability Robomongo remains a top contender on our list of the best MongoDB GUIs. Robomongo embeds the same engine and environment that is a part of MongoDB shell (3.2) and also provides a neat autocomplete feature with a full library of commands. It also analyses and executes it in an internal JavaScript VM, allowing us to give you a run-time auto-completion, impossible to obtain statically.

Robomongo: Interactive Shell & Autocompletion

Here are some features provided by Robomongo:

Native and cross-platform MongoDB manager

Uses very little of your machine resources

The first and still the only tool that embeds real MongoDB shell

The first graphical tool that provides real auto-completion

Note: Full featured commercial grade development UI for MongoDB. Development was stopped for a long time due to funding issue but it appears to be back on track now. Platforms: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux Pricing: Free Community Edition, other versions start at $12/month billed annually.

3. 3T MongoChef

Whether you're exploring your local database or working with shards and replica sets, MongoChef allows you to do all of it.

MongoChef is another preferred tool for developers to work with MongoDB. Whether you’re exploring your local database or working with shards and replica sets, MongoChef allows you to do all of it. 3T helps thousands of MongoDB developers and administrators with their everyday jobs by providing the finest MongoDB tools in the market.

3T MongoChef: Windows & Mac

The MongoChef Shell provides effortless multi-line editing and auto-completion – including of course database and collection names. Creating complex update or aggregation queries is a breeze. MongoChef Shell output is fully formatted, highlighted and searchable. A complete command history is also available.

3T MongoChef: Intellisense

3T MongoChef: Intellisense

Here are some more features provided by 3T MongoChef:

Free to use forever for non-commercial use

Uniquely, built and optimized specifically for MongoDB

Full MongoDB shell integration with IntelliShell

Note: Full featured Development UI – Highly recommended for any developer working with MongoDB Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux

4. MongoBooster

The built-in language service knows all possible completions, methods, properties,
variables, keywords, even the MongoDB collection names, field names, and operators.
The IntelliSense suggestions will pop up as you type.

The built-in language service knows all possible completions, methods, properties, variables, keywords, even the MongoDB collection names, field names, and operators. The IntelliSense suggestions will pop up as you type.

MongoBooster supports mongoose-like fluent query builder API which enables you to build up a query using chaining syntax, rather than specifying a JSON object. The aggregation framework is now fluent as well. You can use it as currently documented or via the chainable methods.

MongoBooster: Log Window

Here are some more features provided:

Tons of built-in snippets

MongoDB shell extensions to make life inside of the MongoDB shell a little bit easier

Which MongoDB GUI is best?

In the end, it all boils down to your requirements in terms of budget, usage needs, team members, the number of features etc. Take your pick and good luck on your journey. Build something awesome and sign up for our newsletter below, we might just feature your project!

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You can also try QueryAssist (https://queryassist.com) – cross-platform GUI tool for MongoDB. It comes with smart code completion, advanced shell features, in-place editing, different view modes and also has nice, modern-looking GUI. Free version is available.